His name, Cuchulainn, means ‘hound of Cullan’.
In his youth, he was so beautiful; the Ulster men worried that without a wife, Cuchulainn will steal their wives and ruin their daughters. They searched all over Ireland for a suitable wife, but he will have none but Emer, daughter of Forgall, who was opposed to the weeding.
Forgall suggests that Cuchulainn should train in arms with Scathach, hoping that he will be killed in the process.
He studied under the warrior/Goddess Scathach on the Isle of Skye.
She teaches him all the arts of war, including the use of the Gae Bulg, a barbed spear, thrown with the foot that has to be cut out of his victim.
She teaches him all the arts of war, including the use of the Gae Bulg, a barbed spear, thrown with the foot that has to be cut out of his victim.
Cuchulainn returned to Ulster, but Forgall still refused to let him marry Emer.
He storms Forgall’s fortress, killing twenty-four men, abducts Emer and steals Forgall’s treasure. This shows how he was known for his terrifying battle frenzy, in which Cuchulainn becomes an unrecognisable monster who knows neither friend nor foe.
Cuchulainn got to be a great warrior and leader of the Red Branch.
At the age of seventeen he defended Ulster single-handedly against the armies of Queen Medb of Connacht in the epic Tain Bo Cuailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley); as the men of Ulster are disabled by a curse and are not able to fight.
It was prophesied that his great deeds would give him everlasting fame, but that his life would be a short one.
When Cuchulainn encounter the Morrigan, he failed to recognise her as an incarnation of the goddess and brusquely rejected the love that she professed him. The Morrigan then told him that in that case she would hinder him when he was in battle.
Cuchulainn’s fate is sealed when he broke his geasa or ban against eating dog meat; causing him to be spiritually weakened for the fight ahead of him.
http://bit.ly/11OM3Ez
http://bit.ly/11OM3Ez
From the moment he was born, there was a ges on Cuchulainn. If anyone awoke him from his sleep it would cause dreadful trouble. He should always be allowed to wake up on his own.
ReplyDeleteThe Morrigan appeared to the hero Cuchulainn on at least four occasions.
ReplyDeleteOn the first occasion she appeared to him, she declared her love for him. When he failed to recognise her and rejected her, she told him that she would hinder him when he was in battle.
The Morrigan attacks Cuchulainn in various animal forms while he is engaged in combat against Loch mac Mofemis.
As an eel, she trips him in the ford, but he breaks her ribs. As a wolf, she stampedes cattle across the ford, but he puts out her eye with a sling-stone. Finally she appears as a heifer at the head of the stampede, but he breaks her leg with another sling-stone.
On the second occasion, she appeared to him as an old hag with the same injuries he had caused her in her animal forms. She gives him three drinks of milk, and with each drink he blesses her, which caused her to be be healed.
The third time Cuchulainn saw the Morrigan she her at the Washer at the Ford washing the clothes and arms of the warrior that soon would be dead, himself.
The last time the hero met the Morrigan, he was forced by three hags (the Morigan in her triple aspect)to break a taboo of eating dogflesh.
In early Ireland there was a powerful general taboo refusing hospitality, so when the old hags offers him a meal of dog meat, he has no choice to break his geis. In this way he is spiritually weakened for the fight ahead of him.